Best Books for 6 Month Old Babies: What To Look For
Searching for books for 6 month old babies? According to Scholastic, babies ages 6 to 12 months will be more interested in story listening.
Typically, a baby this age can pay attention to a single book for up to a minute, for some, possibly two. Changing focus and switching books is the name of the game at this age!
Make book-time play time, and continuously “invite” your child to explore the pages for a few minutes a day. Let’s dive right into the list of the best book books for 6 month old babies.
1. Baby Peekaboo
Choose whichever title in the Indestructible series that appeals most to you. They’re all good! These books for 6 month old babies are great because they are chew-proof, rip proof and waterproof–perfect for a teething baby!
Be sure to pack a couple in your diaper bag to pass the time when traveling or sitting in the waiting room at the pediatrician’s office.
These books are perfect to read to your baby up to 1 years old. To keep it fresh (mainly for your benefit), feel free to go off script.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions; just be comfortable knowing that you’ll be the one answering those questions. For example, “Do you see the dog? What color is the dog? Do you think the baby is sleeping or awake?”
Pause before you answer the questions like you would in a real conversation. Your baby is learning about communication skills when you do that!
This series of books for 6 month old babies top the list due to their durability and colorful pages. They are also a great add to any baby shower gift!
2. You Are My Sunshine
Next up are books for 6 month old babies that you can sing to them. If you’re like me, you adore a song whose lyrics have been arranged into a book. And when it’s your favorite song, you already know the lyrics by heart so it’s easy for you to become animated.
The inflection in your voice, your body movement, and everything else you do to express yourself when you sing, will be so entertaining for your little one to take in.
You Are My Sunshine is a shiny book with large illustrations that your baby will fixate on. This would be a great book to incorporate into your nighttime routine, provided you take it down a notch from your full-on karaoke version of the song.
As your baby gets older, you can help them practice turning the pages. And one day when they get older, don’t be surprised if they start singing this song to you.
3. Five Little Pumpkins
Closing out the list for best books for 6 month old babies is Five Little Pumpkins. My elementary school music teacher introduced me to this rhyme so imagine my surprise when I found this gem of a book.
Despite the seasonality of this book, it’s a great one to reach for all year long. You can introduce numbers to your baby, with each one of your fingers representing a pumpkin. They will probably be fascinated by the hide and seek action of your fingers disappearing, one by one.
If you really want to take this up a notch, you could play this song on the piano or keyboard and run a few scales at the end to really pique your baby’s interest. But for most of us, reading the book is just fine too.
The versatility of this book, the cute concept and the nostalgia, all come together into something really great, making it one of the best books for 6 month old babies.
Final Thoughts on Best Books for 6 Month Old Babies
We set out with a goal of bringing you the best books for 6 month old babies. We featured books that would entertain your child from the 6 month mark all the way to 1 years old!
Babies love experiencing the world around them by putting things in their mouth, so the Indestructibles series was an easy pick for books for 6 month old babies. Those books held up to the tugging, drooling and chewing of my babies plus my neighbor’s baby who we passed it down to.
The other two books are song based which gives you the opportunity to hold your baby’s attention for a longer period of time. They’ll get so used to you reading these books and knowing what comes next, which could help you in sticky situations.
For example, the next time you’re driving and your baby gets fussy, try ‘singing’ the book and it might calm them down. Books for 6 month old babies that can calm them down? Add those books to your cart immediately!
Pro Tip:
Don’t have a book handy? Sing a nursery rhyme instead! Clap your baby’s hands together as you sing Pat-a-Cake. Rock your baby in your lap as you sing, Row Row Row your Boat. Walk your fingers up your baby’s arm as you sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider.
Want to take it up a notch? Shake a maraca to accompany your vocals. Now that’s an experience neither of you will forget.
Pat-A-Cake
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man.
Bake me a cake as fast as you can;
Pat it and prick it and mark it with B,
Put it in the oven for baby and me.
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout.
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain,
and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again
Reading before nap time / bedtime can help your baby wind down and relax. If you’re holding your baby when you read, you’ve also built-in some much desired cuddle time!
Best books for younger kids
Check out the best books for ages 0-6 months
Best book for toddlers
Check out the best books for ages 12-18 months; 18-24 months; 2-3 years; 3-4 years
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I love peek-a-boo series! Thanks for the recos cause you can spend hours just scrolling through the amazon, searching for baby books. There is a bright side though since I’ve found an excellent sleep training book there (How to teach a baby to fall asleep alone by Susan Urban) but it is so time consuming!
Hello Victoria! You are most welcome and I can totally relate about scrolling for hours on Amazon. Once I get a new batch to review, I’ll update the post. Let me know if there are other topics you’d like to see covered, as well!